The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-04-21
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON
Subject: 1.-THE Overthrow of the
Monster"

torU"-Isaiah XIV, s.
=, About eighteen hundred and fifty three
Faster mornings have wakened the earth,
In france for three centuries the almanacs
made made the year begin at Easter, until Charles
Ia made the year begin at January lst. In
sne 9 Tower OF London there is a royal pay
roll of Edward l., on which there
is an entry of eighteen pence for four
hundred colored and pictured Easter
eggs, with which the people sported,
In Russia, slaves were fed and aims were dis.
tributed on Easter. Ecclesiastical councils
met at Pontus, at Gaul, at Rome, at Achaia
to decide the particular day, and after co,,-
troversy, more animated than gracious, de-
clded 1t, and now through all Chrstendom,
IN some way the first Sunday after the full
moon which happens upon or next after
March 2l, is filled with Easter rejoicing.
Inc Royal Court of the Sabbaths is made
up or h1ty-two. Fifty -one are princes in the
royal household, but Easter is queen. She
| wears richer diadem, and sways q moro
leweled sceptre, and in her smile nations are
lrradlated. Unusually welcome this year be-
cause of the harsh winter and the late spring.
! she seems to step out of the snow-bani
rather than the conservatory, come out of the
North instead of the South, out of the Arctic
rather than the tropics, dismountng from the
! icy equinox; but welcome this queenly day,
holding high up In her right hand the
wrenched-oif bolt of Christs sepulchre, and
holding high up i'll her left hand the key to
| all the cemeteries in Christeniom
1t Is an exciting thing to see an army
| routed and flying, They run each otherdo
They scatter everything valuable in the track
| Unwheeled artillery. Hoof of horse on breast
! of wounded and dying man. You have read
OF the French falling back from Sedan, or
Napoleons track of 10000 corpses in the
snoW-banks of Russia, or of the retreat
OF our own armies from Manassas, or of
the five kings tumbling over the rocks of Be-
thoran with their armies, while the hail
storms of heaven and the swords of Joshua's
host struck them with their fury In my text
is worse discontinue. 1t seems that a black
giant proposed to conquer the earth. He
gathered for his host all the aches and pains
ana malarlas and cancers and dStempers
and epidemics of the ages. He marched
them down, drilling them in the north
east wind and amid the slush
OF tempests He threw up barricades of grave
mound. He pitched tent of charnel house.
Some OF the troops marched with slow tread
commanded by conSumptions, some in double
quick, commanded by pneumonias. Some he
took by long beSegement Of evil habit, and
some by one stroke Of the battle axe of cas-
ualty. With bony hands he pounded
at the door of hospitals and sick rooms,
and won all the victories in all the gre1t
battletields of all the five continents Forward
march, the conqueror of Conquerors, and all
the Generals and Conmanders-in-C Chief. and
all Presidents and Kings and Sultans and
Cars drop under the feet of his war charger.
But one Christmas night his antagonist was
born. AS most of the plaques and sick
nesses and desposisms come out
Of the East, it was appropriate that
the new conqueror should come out of
the same quarter Power is given Him to
awaken all the fallen of all the centuries and
of all lands, and marshal them against the
black giant. Fields have already been won,
but the last day of the worlds exist
ence will see the decisive battle. When
Christ shall lead forth His two brigades,
the brigade of the risen dead and the brigade
OF the celestial host, the black giant will fall
back, and the brigade fro n the riyen
sepulchres will take Him from beneath and
the brigade of descending immortals will take
HIM from above, and death shall be swaI-
lowed up in victory.
The Old braggart that threatened the con-
quest and demolition of the planet has lost
his throne, has lost his sceptre, mas lost his
palace, has lost his prestige, and the one word
written over all the gates OF mausoleum and
catacomb and metropolis, on cenotaph and
sarcophaguss on the lonely khan of the Arc
TIC explorer and on the catafalgue OF great
cathedral, written III capitals of aZalea
and calla lily, written in musical cadence,
written IN doXo!oSy of great asscmbiages,
written on the culptured door of the family
vault, Is victory Coronal word. emban-
nered word, apocalyptic word, chief word of
the triumphal arch under which conquerors
return.
Victory! Word shouted at Culloden and
Balaklava and Blenheim, at Meciddo and Sol.
1erno, at Marathon, where the Athenians
drove back the Medes; at Poicters, where
Charles Martel broke the ranks of the Sara
Gems; at Salamis, where Themistocles in
the great sea fight confounded tic
Persians, and at the door of the
Eastern cavern of chiseIed rock. where
throttled the King of Terrors and put him
back Ill the niche from which the celestial
Conqueror had just emerged Ahal when
the Jaws of the Eastern mausoleum took
down the black giant death was swallowed
up in victory" l proclaim the abolition of
death.
The old antagonist is driven back into nv.
thology with all the lore about Stvgian ferry
and Charon with oar and boat. Melrose
Abbey and kenilworth Castle are no more in
ruins than is the sepulchre: We shall have
no more to do with death than we have
Wlth the cloak-room at a Governors or
RESIDENTS levee. We stop at such cloak
room and leave in charge of servant onr
overcoat, our overshoes our outward ap-
parel. that we may not be impeded in the
brilliant round OF the drawing-room Well,
my friends, when we go out of this world we
are going to kings banquet and to recep-
ton of monarchS, and at the door of the tomb
we leave the TX of flesh and the wrappings
with which we meet the storms of this
world. At the close of an earthly reception,
under the brush and broom of the porter the
coat or hat may be handed to us better than
when we resigned it, and the cloak of human
lty viii finally be returned to us improved
and frightened and purified and glorified.
You and do not want our bodies returned
as they are now. We want to get rid of all
their weaknesses and all their susceptibilites
to fatigue and all their slowncss of locomotion
They will be put through chemistry
of soil and heat and cold and chang
ing seasons out of which God will
reconstruct them as much better than
they are now as the body of the rOsiest
and heathiest child that bounds over the
sickest patient in Bellevue Hospital, But as
to our soul, We will cross right over, not
waiting for o5sequies, independent of
obituary, into a state IN every, way
better, with wider rooli and ve!ocities
beyond computation the dullest of us into
companionship with the very best spirits in
their very best mood, in the very parlor of
the universe. the four walls FURNISHED and
paneled and pictured and gloditied with all
the splendors that the infinite God in all the
ages has been able to invent. Victory!
This view of course makes it of but little |
importance whether we are cremated or |
sepultured Ii the latter is dust to dust, the |
former is ashes to ashes Ii any prefer incin- |
Grafton let them have it without caricature.
The world may become so crowded that |
cremation may be universally adopted !
by law as well as by general con |
sent Many of the mightiest and |
best spirits have goue through this process |
Thousands and tens of thousands of Gods |
children have been cremated-P. ?. Bliss and |
wife, the evangelistic singers, cremated by |
accident at Ashtabula Bridge: John Rodgers, |
cremated by persecution: Latimer and |
Ridley, cremated at Oxford Pothinus, |
and Blandida, slave, and Aexan-
der, physician, and their comrades
cremated at the order of Marcus Aurelius-
least a hundred thousand of Christs disciples
there can be no doubt about
the resurrection of their bodies If the world |
lasts as much longer as it has already been
built, there perhaps may be no room for the
large acreage set apart for the resting places,
but that time has not come. Plenty of room
yet, and the race need not pass that bridge
of lire until 1t comes TO it. The most of us
prefer the old way. But whether out of |
natural disintegration or cremation we shall
get that luminous, buoyant, gladsome, trans
cendeut, magnificent, nexpiicahle structure
called the resurrection body, you VIII have
it, / will have il. say to YOU to-day as Paul